An Isolated Encounter in a Life of Adventure
by Stratagemini
Summary: In a life full of strange events one encounter stands out to Ranma. Previously a Oneshot. Now a Crossover.
1. Chapter 1

"I don't know sis. Our lives were a lot calmer before Ranma came around. We never had to deal with crazy amazons or flying tentacled yeti before he arrived. He doesn't directly cause most of it, but he's always involved somehow. Chaos seems drawn to him, like a magnet or something. It sort of makes you wonder doesn't it? why that happens?"

Ranma shook his head as he heard Nabiki comment on the chaos that he had seemed to bring into their lives. He knew exactly why weird and strange events were drawn to him like flies to honey.

It all started when he was 10 years old, after he had met Ukyou, after the cat-fist, but before he had encountered magic for the first time. Ranma and his father were outside Kyoto, in a place called Inari when it happened. They were camping on a small hill next to Inari shrine, a shrine known for its thousand orange Torii gates. Ranma had heard of it, how could he not have, camping a stones throw away. He had wanted to see the shrine but his father had no interest in Shinto shrines unless they contained secret martial arts scrolls.

So Ranma waited until his father was asleep to make his move. Once it got dark he snuck out of his bedroll and headed for the base of the Inari Shrine. The gates were different in the dark, no longer the bright orange that you saw on postcards, they were darker, older. They wound about the mountain circling it in a path, one after the other, and he followed the path for a while. Stone Statues of Foxes guarded the opening of the path, and in the dark Ranma could almost swear that he saw their eyes move. But that was foolishness, stone didn't have eyes, not real ones anyway. Ranma continued down the path, the orange gates towering over him, their presence making the path even darker as they acted as a sort of slitted blind, blocking the light of the stars. There was a new moon, a tiny sliver of light in the darkness. Without the aid of electric lights, or even torches the path was almost pitch black. But Ranma was no stranger to the darkness, he continued on.

Eventually Ranma came to a fork in the path, the trees on either side of him blocked the few stars that were visible, but he could see another pair of statues. Foxes once more, and somehow more lifelike than the last pair. With the shadows cast by the starlight through the trees it almost looked like the statues were moving, turning their heads to look at him as he passed. The path continued to the left and the right... Ranma took the left fork. There were occasional lanterns hung from the gates as he passed by, but none of them was lit with more than a flicker of embers but in the dim light he could see another path to his right side, just as empty as the path he had taken.

The gates ended temporarily, opening up into a small shrine, with a small almost hidden stairway to the left leading further up the mountain. Ranma felt the stairway calling to him, the by now familiar fox guardians looked like they were smiling at him as he entered another set of gates. Ranma was beginning to lose his sense of thought, everything seemed brighter, louder, the gates themselves seemed older, not just worn down, but palpably ancient. He came to a four way fork and followed the leftmost train a meter or two into a small shrine, the offering box still set up, and some candles in a box providing dim illumination. He could see the small figures of foxes and gates under the small roof of the shrine and he stood there for a few minutes looking, absorbing the presence of the place. He had lost track of time, it was late, he knew that, but how late? It didn't seem to matter quite as much to Ranma as it should, the idea of Genma finding him and being angry that he had run off was a distant possibility, one briefly touched on, and then discarded as he continued onwards.

He turned around completely, a small set of steps made of wood and gravel wound its way up the mountain, but there were no more gates lining this particular path. There were signs, but it was too dark for him to read them. He climbed the stairs drawn up them by what lay beyond. Fire, floating in the air small lights almost like stars were straight ahead of him, keeping pace as he walked and lighting the path. The plants were lush here, and the path was narrow with steep embankments on either side. It had started to drizzle a light spring rain upon him, but Ranma took no heed of it, not even noticing the lack of sound as the rain struck the lights in front of him. He merely followed as they led.

The path was not difficult, but it was long, moss and trees and rock walls were his sole companions. The splattering of the rain as it hit the ground was the only sound he could hear. His feet were no longer making a single noise as he walked. Ranma looked down, It was impossible to say in the darkness, but it almost looked as if his feet had faded away into nothingness. Ranma discarded the thought, he was still walking wasn't he? He couldn't do that without feet.

Finally Ranma came to see something new, a single line of stone, a path only about as wide as he was made out of stone blocks, leading into another shrine area. The lights turned into the shrine and started to dance out of his sight but Ranma surged forwards with alarming quickness and grabbed one. Holding the small white ball of fire in his hand. It felt warm to the touch but it didn't burn, a pleasant feeling in the spring rain. Ranma placed the shining ball in a pocket and continued into the shrine after the other light.

There were roofs in the shrine area, to shelter from the rain, which was now substantially more than a drizzle, and a large rope for a bell which Ranma couldn't see in the darkness. But the thing that drew Ranma's eyes immediately were not the offerings, or the bell, but the two pillars, where two young girls his age were perched, one was holding a glowing white ball that Ranma recognized as one of the lights he had followed, identical to the one he held himself. The girls looked identical but for that one difference, each had long flowing white hair and dressed in a pure white yukata. But the one lacking a glowing ball had in her hand something that looked delicious, two helpings of inarizushi.

"Hello?" Ranma asked the two girls. They looked him over, heads moving up and down as one. "You're fading away." They responded in unison. "Wasting away to skin and bones and air. You must eat something." and with that, the girl holding the inarizushi offered it to him. Ranma took it and, never one to turn down free food, gobbled up the pouches of fried tofu with rice inside. Immediately he felt better, he could see his feet once more and he wondered to himself, was it a trick of the light? Or was he really fading away until he ate the food?

The girls giggled at him. "That's better." they paused. "You have something we want. Ranma." Ranma looked at them confused. "The ball of fire and light. You have it, but it's mine, and I want it back." This time only one of the two girls spoke, the one who had offered him the food.

"What will you give me for it?" Ranma asked, his father's upbringing showing in the manner that he negotiated.

"What do you want? My hand? I could be a devoted wife to you." The girl offered.

"A wife? What use would I have for one of those? Maybe later, but I'm always on the road now. No, what else do you have."

The girl frowned. "I have money, gems and yen. I could give it to you."

"No, my father would take it. That's no more useful than sticks and leaves."

"What do you want then?" the girl asked increasingly desperately as the other girl looked on amused.

"I want adventure. I want to be the greatest martial artist ever, to be able to use my skills for good. To save damsels and such."

The girl's eyes widened. "That's what you want? Adventure and skill? This I can give to you."

Ranma looked at her disbelievingly. But the girl continued on. "I promise. If you give me my Hoshi no Tama back in return you will have adventure, and the knowledge to understand any martial arts move you come across. Does that sound good to you?"

Ranma handed over the small ball. "Yeah, that sounds perfectly fine." The girl vanished as she took the ball, a bright light flashed, and the next thing Ranma knew it was morning, he was dirty and disheveled and laying on his back in the same shrine from last night, but something had changed, atop the pillars, where the girls had sat last night, were now two statues of foxes, each holding a small white ball. He got up, and a small piece of paper fell to the ground, he picked it up and looked at the writing upon it. "We'll meet again Ranma Saotome. I promise it."

Ranma shook his head freeing it from the dust of memory. Since that day his tenth birthday, everything had happened as the girl had promised, adventure and skill were his. He had to work hard to master the moves he learned, but upon seeing them he could understand how they worked, not all at once, but if not immediately, then after two or three encounters. Everything that the girl had promised had happened except for that note.

Ranma couldn't complain though. Trouble followed him around now, but he had asked for it, and to a degree, he kind of enjoyed it. Never knowing what was next, the constant fights to prove that he was the best. This was a life worth living. As for that final promise, well, who knows what the future will bring, Ranma certainly didn't, and that suited him just fine.

* * *

This started out as a Spirited Away crossover. I'm placing it nominally in the same universe as Spirited Away, but as you can probably tell, aside from some Japanese mythology, there's not a lot in common with the Ghibli work.

Other than that I hope the story stands on it's own.


	2. Chapter 2

It would be two years next Monday. Two years since he left Nerima on a rainy Monday afternoon. He had planned to return but somehow it just hadn't happened. Life caught up with him, or maybe it was the other way around. Now it was two years later, and he was once more wandering about in the wilderness, living off the land as he had in his youth.

The sedentary lifestyle had gotten to him. He would wake up each night in the same place, every day come home to the same house. It was odd, but he thought he could deal with it at first. His life was never boring after all, each week there would be some new interesting adventure to embark on, some new cure, or a new challenger. He had thought he could deal with living in one place, at least as long as the adventures kept the boredom away.

It hadn't worked out. One day he gathered up his stuff, a brief training trip, maybe a week or two, that's all. He'd return after his wanderlust calmed down. It hadn't happened. He'd started hiking south, down towards Kyoto. He'd passed places he'd been before, shrines that looked different under the light of day, that he only half remembered.

The weather changed, the blistering heat of summer crept in and then vanished before he knew it as the leaves started to turn. He reached Kyoto as the leaves began to fall, He didn't have much money, a bit saved up here and there from odd jobs. It wasn't enough to tour the temple gardens, just enough for food, and maybe a warm bed on nights when the weather turned foul.

It was as he walked along the philosopher's path that day in the fall that he saw her for the first time. She wasn't really anything remarkable, just a girl with dark almost shoulder length hair. It wasn't her hair that drew his attention, it was in a simple style, two bangs in front of her ears, and a pony tail at the back of her head. Nor was it her mode of dress, it was a bit chilly for the pink shorts she was wearing, and the white t-shirt with the green collar and matching stripe across the chest really did nothing for her figure which was somewhat lanky and thin. He had seen better looking at himself in the mirror, though given what had happen the last time he had mentioned such to a girl, he wasn't about to bring that up.

He let her pass him by as he walked the small stone path next to the canal. The trees barely blocking out the view of the city surrounding him with their brilliant autumn shades. The water in the canal was shallow. The wind rustled the leaves around him. He had felt like this before. Relaxed. Calm. But it had been years ago and with time he had forgotten what calm was.

He watched as the girl walked in front of him, her sneaker-clad feet halting as she took a few moments to look at the old stone walls of the canal, admiring the fish in the water, and the occasional abundance of vegetation growing out from between the blocks. There was something about her. She was utterly unremarkable, but there was something, something he knew, something that he recognized in her. He wondered what her name was, but he had never been good at introductions.

She spoke, not to him, but to the water, as if she thought there was some life to it, some spirit in the small canal. The sound of the water covered her words, but he could see her lips moving, see the smile gracing her face as she talked intently to the water below. Not the fish in the water, but the water itself. It didn't strike him as odd, though he knew that others might see it that way. He had felt for years that nature was alive around him, not just the creatures and plants, but the rocks and trees and streams themselves. He had tried to explain it once, back in Nerima, when someone had asked him what he believed. They told him it was Shinto, that it was traditional, old fashioned. He wasn't sure he believed that. He'd never had formal schooling on the subject, and he rarely attended any religious ceremony. To call what he believed Shinto, it felt demeaning somehow, lessening, as someone could take the whole of nature and compress it into a single word. He wasn't sure he believed that. He had seen some strange things in his lifetime, but nothing that could really explain them all cohesively.

The girl was looking at him now, her dark eyes meeting his own blue pair. They stayed like that for a minute, then longer, looking into each others eyes before they were interrupted by an older woman walking by them on the path. The moment was broken and the girl turned to walk on while he stood still, looking anywhere but her direction, staring into the water, watching the plants and the rocks as she vanished into the leaves ahead.

That was almost a year ago.

It was spring now, the spring rain was light, almost a mist, and it gave the area an unearthly quality. He had hiked north again after that day in Kyoto, heading away from whatever he felt that day, wandering where his feet led him. He had avoided Tokyo on his way back, he circled around it, and in circling he had come to Nikko.

The sky was wide open as he passed through the town itself, the mountains ahead jutting up to the sky. They were clad in spring colors, browns and greens mostly, but every so often you could see the merest flash of color, as if from a single a flowering tree upon the mountain. He climbed uphill through the town walking through the narrow streets. He passed by a small shrine, a pair of stone Torii gates framing the entrance. Two guardian statues, stone lions, flanking the small black and gold shrine itself. He walked on. The shrine was pleasant to look at, but nothing special in and of itself. He had come to Nikko for a different experience.

He had heard about Nikko back in Nerima "You haven't lived until you've seen Nikko" one of his classmates had told him. But he hadn't had any pressing desire to go there until he wandered in on his own, aimlessly.

Now he had a destination, at least temporarily. He was headed for the mountain. The spring mist clung to his shirt like dew as he walked, out of the city and over a bridge into the cedar forest before him. He walked up the wide stone stairway towards the temples ahead. The sun was starting to sink past the horizon, the shrines would be closed soon, but that didn't really matter to Ranma, he didn't intend to go inside and visit, he wanted to walk through them. Walk past them deeper into the forest on the mountain ahead.

There were many people around him, most headed the other direction, but he felt alone in the sea of faces as he walked on. A troupe of small children dressed in bucket hats, probably on a school trip, passed to his left chattering excitedly about what they'd seen, but he let it wash over him. It wasn't important.

Night was falling as he passed the temples, their impressive vermillion towers and gates looming over him in the twilight. The crowds faded as he walked on, up higher on the mountain. He could see the gold lacquered buildings beyond the closed gates, the illustrations of fantastical creatures. Even in the last rays of the day they seemed to glimmer and move.

He strayed from the beaten path, walking up the mountain itself, feeling the soft loam beneath his feet as he hiked up the almost vertical incline behind the main shrines. He passes through the trees, each one towering above him, even the shortest of them stretched at least fifty feet before they reached the night sky overhead.

He thought he could see a light in the darkness ahead so he headed towards it. Night had fallen as he traveled and the forest surrounding him was pitch black and silent, save for that one light above him. He could make it out more clearly now it was a paper lantern, hanging from the branch of a cypress tree. And beneath the lantern, a blanket, and a girl.

He felt it again, the calm that rose up in his chest that autumn day in Kyoto among the leaves. It was the same girl.

She looked up at him as he approached and sat down, smiling hesitantly but not getting up or saying a word. He wondered what she was doing here, almost a year later sitting on a blanket in a forest in the middle of the night, what had brought her here. He didn't ask.

"Hello." He said, slowly, as if tasting the word for the first time. She smiled and responded in kind, "Hello."

"I'm Ranma." he paused, wondering if he should add more, but it seemed like it was enough. She smiled at him and said a single word. A name. Her name. "Sen"

* * *

At this point in time I have a Definite Idea where I'm going with this. Probably. There'll be at least one more chapter. Perhaps two. And well, this is officially the Spirited Away cross I had meant it to be.


End file.
